December Month End Budget Update for Groceries and Eating Out

I maintain a budget of $160 monthly grocery spending and $40 for eating out or take out.  I try to use coupons, sales and any other means to make my budget.  Below are the things that I got for the month and how much I spent.  At the bottom is my eating out totals as well.  Check out how I did for the last month of the year.  I will post the year review soon so stay tuned.

Harris Teeter $1.25

Super confused but I don't see a picture of this shopping trip but I have these two pictures from the store.  I got four oatmeal and two Aunt Jemima pancake for free.  I got one Buffalo and one Garlic Parmesan pretzel crisps.  I also got my free Taste and Tell Oat Milk.  

Aldi $19.16

I went for milk and they were out of the big milk so I got the smaller one which was $1.21.  I said that I would stop getting the big one because we aren't doing the best job at getting them finished before they go bad.  I got three more cheese because we were low.  I got bananas and turkey for my husband.  I got another bag of pepperoni because ours was really low.  I got three more bags of popcorn because we use them a lot and they are seasonal at Aldi. I got a bag of mini marshmallows because I asked my son about making a special green tree out of cheerios and he seemed on board but then he said he didn't want them after I got these so they weren't made.

Wegman's $2.03

We got a few of the new package last time and we were excited to find that they changed the recipe a little again and it was better!  I went back to grab a bunch more.

Harris Teeter $29.91

I went to get the Pillsbury Bread flour which was on sale for $1.97 limit 4.  I also got the Cran Grape because I wasn't sure if we were getting low and it was on sale for $2.14 and I probably should have bought some more.  The peas were on sale for $2.49 on the big bag which made it cheaper then the smaller bag per ounce so I got that to add to my fried rice.  I got the Mueller's Egg Noodles for $.075 per bag.  My husband said that he wanted some Rosemary Chicken and Egg Noodles so I grabbed these because they were on sale.  There was some clearance ground beef so I got them and started making chili and we ate some and froze some which we just got to eat in the new year.  I love having those emergency foods to have when we need something fast which is made even better when I get it for $1.99 per pound.

Giant $2.39

I got a freebie on the Country Crock from Giant so I went in and tried to see what other deal I could get and I got the Gerber on sale and used a coupon and electronic coupon and got an overage from the Country Crock so it was a great deal overall.

Aldi $13.07

I went to get the milk because my mom was coming.  I also was almost out of stick butter so I grab them for baking.  I also got two more bags of popcorn because they still had them.  I got another bag of chicken fries so that I could take some on our trip for my son.

Aldi $5.10

Look at the sale ad after checking out and ran back to get the potatoes that were on sale so that I could make some yummy potato dishes with these sale potatoes.

Total Retail $149.81

Total Saving $76.90

Total OOP $72.91

Eating Out

Spending was a little high this month but it is the time of year that we celebrate and get together with friends and family to have special meals.  The amazing thing is that we cut out the money from groceries because we still had lots of things in the house to make our meals for the rest of the year.  I also was working for the whole month so it was hard to make trips to the store with everything else going on so I didn't get in as many trips as I normally would.

I took my parents to First Watch at the beginning of the month because they bought Chinese at the end of November but I used a gift card so I didn't spend anything.  We got Pizza Hut in the middle of the month for $8.47.  My sister in law took us out of dinner at Delia's, my son's favorite restaurant, because we were going to see Christmas lights together.  We had my sister in law over for Chinese food on Christmas Eve which was $71.82 which we picked up since they got last time.  I voted for Lasagna but they voted for Chinese so I got a break from cooking and being in the kitchen.  We were out of town at my cousin's house and we got a pizza for my son because we were having yummy pizza from the local pizza place and he decided that he wanted his normal Pizza Hut which there was a free cheese stick promotion so I got them for $8.63 because there is higher tax in New York.  Total spent on eating out or take out for the month was $88.92. We passed on a few more more times eating out while traveling so it wasn't as bad as it could be.  We were $48.92 over budget for the month but I was under the grocery budget by $87.09 so I didn't feel extremely bad because I balanced the spending to put the priority on what we wanted to